Initial stacks are 2,000 and the blinds start at 10/20, so at least we start with a decent amount of chips. I expect play to be VERY tight with that much money and that short a field.
My first key hand comes up only 11 minutes in, still in the first blind level:
Blinds: $10.00/$20.00, 9 players
Stack sizes:
UTG: $2000.00
UTG+1: $1970.00
MP1: $2325.00
Hero: $1885.00
MP3: $2030.00
CO: $2060.00
Button: $1840.00
SB: $1910.00
BB: $1950.00
Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is MP2 with J♥ J♦
3 folds, Hero raises to $75, MP3 raises to $300, 4 folds, Hero calls.
Flop: 9♦ 2♣ 7♥ ($630, 2 players)
Hero bets $255, MP3 raises to $510, Hero calls.
Turn: 4♦ ($1650, 2 players)
Hero checks, MP3 bets $580, Hero folds.
Ouch. Half of my stack gone on that hand. Guy claims he had AA, and I believe him. I would have (and probably should have) folded to the flop raise, but my thought was that it was a min-raise and was worth calling. Fuzzy thinking - I'm pretty sure I'm playing to 2 outs, and the stacks aren't big enough to give me the implied odds I need to try to hit the J: I know I stack him if I hit my J, but to call $255 with 22-1 odds he'd have to have at least 5K left in front of him to make it worth my while, which he obviously didn't. Bad play, and I lost $255 more than I needed to here.
I get a very small amount back a few minutes later with:
Blinds: $10.00/$20.00, 9 players
Stack sizes:
UTG: $1840.00
UTG+1: $1910.00
MP1: $1940.00
MP2: $1970.00
MP3: $1970.00
CO: $2295.00
Hero: $1045.00
SB: $2900.00
BB: $2100.00
Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is Button with 10♥ 10♣
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, 4 folds, Hero raises to $85, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls.
Flop: 8♠ 8♦ 2♥ ($200, 2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $125, UTG+1 folds.
and then give it all back almost immediately with:
Blinds: $15.00/$30.00, 9 players
Stack sizes:
UTG: $1820.00
UTG+1: $1985.00
MP1: $1925.00
MP2: $1910.00
MP3: $2205.00
Hero: $1085.00
Button: $2855.00
SB: $2185.00
BB: $1985.00
Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is CO with 2♥ 2♣
5 folds, Hero raises to $65, Button folds, SB calls, BB folds.
Flop: A♣ K♣ 6♦ ($160, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $85, SB calls.
Turn: 3♣ ($330, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks.
River: Q♦ ($330, 2 players)
SB bets $150, Hero folds.
I'm now under 1,000, which at this point is under 30 BB. I'm getting shortstacked already, and we're only 20 minutes in! I start tightening way up, and don't play much of anything until the blinds are 50/100 and I'm sitting on 785 chips. All-in or fold from here on out, methinks.
- I push with AJo unopened, no caller. Up to 935.
- I take a round of blinds, back down to 785.
- I push with JJ in EP2, no caller. Up to 935.
- I take the BB and someone with only 110 pushes, and I call with JTo for the additional 10. I win against A9o when I spike a T on the river. Up to 1020.
- I push with 66 in MP1, no caller. Up to 1245.
- I take a round of blinds, back down to 1020.
- I push with KQo on the button, no caller. Back up to 1245.
- I take a round of blinds, back down to 1020.
- I push with KK in MP2, no caller. Up to 1245.
- I take two sets of blinds and get semi-involved with a free look in my BB and lose a bit. Down to 870.
Somewhere around here I officially become "last place guy" and am 55th of of 55 remaining.
Blinds go up to 100/200. First hand of the new blinds:
Stack sizes:
UTG: $4460.00
UTG+1: $1852.50
UTG+2: $2835.00
MP1: $3430.00
MP2: $2530.00
MP3: $5030.00
Hero: $870.00
Button: $3185.00
SB: $1035.00
BB: $2030.00
Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is CO with 4♥ 4♦
6 folds, Hero raises all-in $870, Button calls, 2 folds.
Button shows A♦ Q♦
Flop: 10♥ 10♠ 6♣ ($2040, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2040)
Turn: 7♠ ($2040, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2040)
River: 3♦ ($2040, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2040)
Results: Final pot: $2040
Whew. I win the coin flip and I go over 2,000 chips for the first time in the tournament - over 80 minutes in! I still only have 10 BB, so more all-in or fold.....
- Very next hand I pick up AQo in MP2, push, no caller. Up to 2340.
- I get a free look in a BvB and bet the flop when checked to. Up to 2440.
- I go card dead and fold a few set of blinds.
- I push ATo in MP3, no caller. Up to 2290.
- A stack shorter than a BB goes all-in while I'm in the BB with 96o. I'm against 88, but hit a 9 on the river. Up to 2467.
- I win a BvB. Up to 2917.
- I min-raise 44 in MP3 (WHAT?!?! I don't have enough chips to pull this off!!!!), the button goes all-in and has me covered. I fold. Down to 2162. This is horrible play by me, but may have saved my bacon.
- I lose a BvB, down to 1712.
Blinds: $150.00/$300.00, 8 players
Stack sizes:
UTG: $7065.00
UTG+1: $5285.00
MP1: $4710.00
MP2: $2357.50
CO: $9582.50
Button: $3030.00
SB: $2660.00
Hero: $1412.50
Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is BB with 9♣ 9♠
2 folds, MP1 raises to $900, 4 folds, Hero raises all-in $1412.5, MP1 calls.
MP1 shows A♣ 10♦
Flop: K♠ 9♥ 5♥ ($3275, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2975, Sidepot 1: $300)
Turn: J♣ ($3275, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2975, Sidepot 1: $300)
River: 8♦ ($3275, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2975, Sidepot 1: $300)
Results: Final pot: $3275
YES! For what it is worth, we still haven't hit the money, but are quite close and my stack is now big enough to "coast" to the money should I choose to. But I don't.
The blinds go up to 200/400. Still less than 10 BB, so more all-in or fold.....
- I push ATo in the cutoff, no callers. Up to 3975.
- I take a round of blinds.
- I push KK from the button, no callers. Up to 4575.
- Very next hand, I raise to 955 with AJs from the cutoff, no callers. Up to 5175.
- I win a button vs BB with complete air. Up to 5730.
The blinds go up to 300/600. I think we hit the money bubble somewhere around here.
- I take a round of blinds.
- I push AKo from the cutoff, no callers. Up to 6030.
- I push KK UTG, no callers. Up to 6930
I am in the top 10 in chip position. Amazing - how many times in an MTT structure have I pulled this trick off? Chip and a chair.....
Blinds go up to 400/800.
I think we get down to 20 people somewhere around here.
- I take a bunch of blinds and am down to 4270.
- I push ATs on the button, no callers. Up to 5470.
- I take the BB at 400/800, then the SB at 500/1000, then another round of blinds at 500/1000 with no cards at all. Not even steal-worthy cards. Down to 2670, under 3 BB, and insanely desperate.
Time for the ever-present math portion of my posts:
Assuming both blinds fold, it would have been 2670 to win 6840, so I only need to win 39% of the time to make a profitable call here. He says he had AQo. PokerStove tells me I have 41% equity here against this exact hand, so even if he flips his hand over, I have a marginal call. Against his entire range of hands he COULD have, I think I messed this one up big-time. Against (for example) any pair, any two broadway, I am 47.8%. I needed to make that call, even if I went busto doing it. Plus, I only have 4 more hands until I have to post a BB which will resign me to going all in with almost any two cards. Am I likely to get a better hand or situation than KJs in the next 4 hands? Likely not. I suck. :-)
Amazingly enough, though, just two hands later I pick up KJo in MP3 and push. The SB re-raises to get the BB out of the way and flips over 55. Coin flip. The board comes A998Q and I go out in 13th place, winning $210. Not bad for just under 3 hours worth of work, though.
My buddy poker1eh actually had the chip lead with about 16 people to go and wound up taking 6th for $525, busting out on TT vs. 99 when a 9 hit the board. My brother took 32nd place (just out of the money) when he had AK vs. QQ. He improved with an A, but so did the QQ with another Q.
I can't wait until the next one - I could play short field 10K freerolls every day!
In terms of analyzing my (possible) mistakes made:
My early JJ hand - I don't know if I'm supposed to lose more there or less there. JJ vs. AA is going to be painful when both remain overpairs. Maybe if I'm a better NL player I actually fold that one to the re-raise preflop: he re-raised about 1/7 of my stack - is it worth it to continue? Especially if I don't spike a J?
My min-raise with 44 late in the tourney. Donkey. Either fold it or go all in with less than 10 BB.
My KK pushes that only picked up the blinds:
- KK in MP2 with 7 BB
- KK OTB with 9 BB
- KK UTG with 10 BB
One can argue I could have min-raised any of them (especially the UTG one) and then hoped someone tried coming over the top so I could at least pick up a little extra $. But I really don't mind the pushes - I figure eventually someone is eventually going to get sick of me pushing and call, and I don't really mind not seeing flops and letting the random Ax I let in for cheap hitting their A. Stealing is worth 1.5 BB, and is a significant chunk of change at that point.
As far as tightness, I folded all the below hands preflop. Unless otherwise noted, all are unopened to me, and are in time order in the tourney. Some of these are obvious mistakes, but nowhere near all of them. They are also lacking context (BB willingness to defend, where the big/short stacks are, how close to the bubble we are, etc.) which makes them hard to look at in list form this way, but I figure I'll lay them all out anyways, and I can look up the specific situation if any of my readers wish to debate my play. :-)
- Folded KJo in EP2 with 40 BB.
- Folded Q9o on the button with 35 BB.
- Folded 99 in EP2 with 30 BB.
- Folded 66 UTG with 30 BB.
- Folded 88 UTG with 30 BB.
- Folded QJs in MP1 with 18 BB
- Folded A9o in CO with 9 BB.
- Folded 66 in MP1 with 8 BB
- Folded 88 UTG with 12 BB.
- Folded A9o in CO with 6 BB
- Folded 99 OTB to a 3 BB raise by MP3 who had me covered when I only had 10 BB
- Folded ATo in MP2 with 6 BB
- Folded A8o OTB with 8 BB
- Folded KTs in MP1 with 13 BB
- Folded KJo in EP3 with 10 BB
- Folded A4o OTB with 11 BB
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